Deja Poop: Much love for Pingu

I keep forgetting that not everyone here has been reading The Poop since it started. Since several people in today’s comments section admitted to being Pingu virgins, here’s our original Pingu enthusiast post that ran on Jan 4, 2007. -Peter

Next to changing diapers, the biggest thing that kept me from wanting to generate offspring was the prospect of watching horrible children’s programming. I can’t even sit through a full episode of “Two and a Half Men” — I was pretty sure that Barney and Thomas would turn me into this guy. Twenty-one months into our parenting experiment, bad TV hasn’t been a problem. So far my son’s two favorite programs are “Sesame Street” (specifically Elmo) and now “Pingu.”

The Swiss-made program is sort of a cross between “March of the Penguins” and Mr. Bill. The animation is done with clay characters and stop motion cameras. Pingu is a young penguin who lives with his baby sister and parents and hangs out with a seal.

“Pingu” is definitely for very young children — the penguins speak in gibberish and have simple adventures — but not cutesy or especially politically correct. (It’s been a while, but I suspect childless adults who get stoned a lot will enjoy this show even more than my boy does.) Pingu’s parents bicker at times, he catches and eats fish and we watched one recent episode where Pingu’s sister pooped onscreen.

“Pingu” appears in short episodes on PBS Sprout, which you can’t get without a tricked-out cable package. But there are a couple of DVDs on Amazon.com for less than $10 — and a few episodes available on YouTube.

Since someone posting in The Poop comments section suggested checking out the show (thanks, madplanner2!), TiVoed episodes of “Pingu” have become a pre-bedtime ritual. We’re hoping it distracts him enough that he never has a chance to discover “Caillou.”